Indian billionaire Ambani's Reliance Retail to raise $598 million from ADIA

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail Ventures said on Friday it would raise 49.67 billion rupees ($598 million) from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, in the latest bet on India's largest retailer ahead of a potential stock market listing.

The investment by ADIA at a valuation of $100.8 billion will translate into a stake of 0.59% in the company, the retail unit of oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries said in a regulatory filing.

Reliance Retail, with more than 18,000 stores and which competes with Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart, has attracted investments from private equity firm KKR & Co and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) in recent months.

"Reliance Retail has demonstrated strong growth and adaptability in a market that is evolving at an unprecedented pace," said Hamad Shahwan Aldhaheri, executive director of the private equities department at ADIA.

The investment comes as Reliance set an internal target to raise $3.5 billion.

Reuters reported last month that Reliance Retail was in talks with existing investors including the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia for combined new investments of around $1.5 billion.

ADIA and Singapore's GIC had invested $664 million each into the retail unit in 2020 as Reliance sold a 10.09% stake at a valuation of 4.68 trillion rupees. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund had pumped in $1.15 billion, based on current exchange rates.

Ambani said in August that "several marquee global strategic and financial investors have shown strong interest" in his company.

Morgan Stanley acted as financial adviser to Reliance Retail Ventures for the ADIA deal.

($1 = 83.1190 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)